Organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays have several advantages over liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in display applications. For example, they have better visual performance in low ambient light conditions because they are emissive. They also have superior temperature stability since molecular motion is essentially not involved in operating OLED displays, while it is essential for the operation of LCDs. However, the implementation of OLED displays in handheld equipment has been hindered by several problems. One of them is poor sunlight readability. The on and off pixels become indistinguishably bright under sunlight, due to light emanating from pixels that are in the OFF state. The sunlight visibility problem has been attributed to sunlight reflection at the OLED cathodes of pixels in the OFF state. Circular polarizers (a linear polarizer combined with a quarter wave plate) have been used to block the reflected sunlight from cathodes. The effect of this approach has been far from satisfactory with reference to its performance in high ambient light conditions such as direct sunlight. In another approach described in International Publication WO 98/28767, entitled An Organic Light Emitting Device Containing a Protection Layer, published on 2 Jul. 1998, a low-reflectance absorber layer is used at the back of transparent OLED (TOLED) displays to improve contrast ratio under sunlight. This method provides less than optimum results in direct sunlight.